It’s that time of year again. Christmas is just around the corner, and your family – namely the in-laws or your overly-concerned parents – are set to visit these holidays and make you feel self-conscious about your living situation. It’s time to launch into a cleaning frenzy and prepare your house for the festive season.
Among all the holiday stress, the occasional unsolicited comment suggesting you should “maybe consider getting a nice, corporate job, instead” is bad enough.
The last thing anyone would want is snarky comments suggesting your yard “could really do with a makeover.” Not to mention, how unsuspectedly dangerous your house can actually be.
Check out some of the ways you can make your home look brand new without hiring a professional, and become the envy of your entire extended family (because that’s who we really want to impress, right?).
1. Pressure wash your house
Pressure washing provides for some seriously satisfying content. It’s seriously effective, too, and can literally transform the appearance of your outdoor walls and concrete floors right before your eyes. You don’t even need to hire a professional. You can hire a pressure washer and easily do it yourself.
2. Sharpen your kitchen knives
The need to sharpen your knives may slip your mind, but a dull knife is frustrating at best and dangerous at worst. There are some common misconceptions about how to sharpen a knife at home, and using honing steel to do the job is one of them. Check out this tutorial for some easy knife sharpening tricks.
3. Child proof your home
If you don’t have any children around, it’s natural that you might be oblivious to the dangers that children can get themselves into. From uncovered wall sockets, to unlocked cupboards within arms reach, child-proofing your home is essential to keeping your visiting cousins, nieces and nephews out of harm’s way.
Make a baby-proofing checklist and find some baby-proofing ideas below.
4. Clean the inside of your car
The grime that accumulates in your car can be seriously disturbing, especially when you haven’t seen your back seat in what feels like months. Who knows how many drinks have been left festering in the cupholders, or just what exactly has stained the seats.
When you’re ferrying your relatives around, a filthy car interior can be kind of… embarrassing. Take note of these car interior cleaning tips to save yourself the added stress.
5. Give your rooms a fresh coat of paint
The power of a fresh coat of paint to give a room – or an entire house – a fresh new look is hard to overstate. This is another DIY job where you can paint a room professionally and not break your bank during the festive season.
Failing all of the above – or for those with access to a credit card – might we suggest Airbnb?
